# At wit's end with this lip condition.



## Bunbunny (Jun 26, 2014)

Disclaimer: not looking for medical information, but if you'd like to suggest something _because you've been through something similar_, I can take it up with my doctor. Otherwise please don't try to diagnose me, I promise you that I've been trying my hardest on my own.

ANYWAY. Long story ahead, because I can't stop thinking about this anyway.

Starting around May 13th and climaxing on May 15th, I had a huge reaction or _something_ on my lips. It began as tiny bumps around the border of my lips, right on the outline -- tiny bumps that couldn't been seen unless I stretched my lip skin taut and had it at just the right angle for the light to hit them. But I could feel them, dozens of them. They didn't hurt until the 15th, where suddenly, my lips became swollen and painful. Some of the bumps became bigger (maybe 1mm) and looked like they had a white head, but would not ooze or pop, even when squeezed (which was very painful to try). I tried various products on my lips that I've used before (lip balm, propolis, tea tree oil, argan oil, vaseline) to no avail. When washing my lips, little bits and pieces of the bumps would fall off when I rubbed at them, especially if they had oil or vaseline on them. They were almost like little grits coming out of the bumps, though I'm not sure if they came out of the bumps precisely or not. It felt like they did, and the bumps were usually better looking after I did this. However, they always came back worse for the wear, so I tried to stop doing it. My lips were at one point so swollen I could barely open my mouth.

When I went to the clinic, I had all of a two-minute meetup where the doctor insisted it was just "a bad case of cold sores". Never mind that I've had plenty of cold sores before and this was NOTHING like a cold sore. The bumps were hardly clustered, very diffuse, and there were one or two bumps in the middle of my lips not surrounded by any others. They had no pus in them and did not scab over. I was prescribed an acyclovir + hydrocortisone cream which of course cost over $50 and was sent on my way. I borrowed some anti-cold sore pills from a family member as well, on the off chance that the doctor was right. 

The major episode of swelling and pain lasted just over a week, perhaps 9 days. I used only the cream prescribed and white petroleum jelly on my lips, and took the pills twice a day. I ate TONS of foods containing lysine (an amino acid said to help speed recovery from cold sores) and avoided foods with high arginine (which is said to aggravate cold sores). My usual cold sores last one week or less, so none of this helped at all. This is the first reason that I don't think it is cold sores.

The second reason? It's June 26th, and I have still been struggling with these bumps. Since the first week from hell, I've been able to go about my daily life. I can talk and eat. But the bumps are always there, no matter what I do. They flare up once in a while, like after I eat something (anything, no connection to any food allergies from what I can tell), or after kissing my boyfriend (reason number three that these aren't cold sores: he's had zero cold sores despite kissing and sharing food every day for twenty days). Sometimes they flare up for reasons unknown. These "flare ups" result in my lips feeling tingly (not unlike a cold sore before it occurs), "tight" (like dry lips), and dry (due to the texture, NOT because my lips are dry).

I've tried so many things. I've stopped using my old lip balms and lip sticks entirely, and bought a new lip balm that was supposed to be very moisturizing. It was, and actually did help, but only if I applied it every other hour and didn't eat or kiss my boyfriend at all. Because we have a long-distance relationship, this really hurt, because if he's only here for a few weeks a year I really want to be able to kiss him. I don't think the lip balm works anymore. I've also tried vaseline (no dice, and broke out my chin where it dripped), argan oil (OK, but doesn't really help the bumps), Blistex (seemed to make the bumps worse, maybe due to menthol), and nothing at all (which leaves me feeling dry, bumpy, and uncomfortable). I've completely rid myself of my lip biting/licking habit because it's so painful or uncomfortable to do so. I've tried days where I've used no skin products at all... no dice.

This has honestly stressed me out so much. I still haven't seen my regular doctor because I've had so much school work or regular work to do. I'll finally be free next week and I hope I can make an appointment, but I'm terrified that he'll just write it off as cold sores like the last doctor. I want this to be gone. I used to complain about having dry lips all the time, now I only WISH that was the problem. I want to know if this is an allergic reaction so I can rid myself of everything that has the compound. I want to know if this is bacterial so I can kill it with antibiotics. I want to know if this is related to a vitamin deficiency so I can totally change my diet. Anything but this stupid condition where I can't even kiss the person I love, can't enjoy eating my favourite foods because I know it'll end with me spending half an hour soothing my lips with lip balm, can't smile as wide as I want to because my lips feel too tight.

Right now, I'm trying to avoid using products with propolis, honey, or beeswax because I've heard that people can get sudden allergic reactions to it. Beeswax is the only common thing in the lip balms I've been using (which are otherwise free of any nasty chemicals such as alcohol or sulfates). I don't know if it's helping or not. The Blistex I used today on my top lip only contains beeswax and the bumps today are worse up there. I hope it's that simple.


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## MrsShaw (Jun 26, 2014)

Aww, sorry, that sounds miserable!  /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" /> I have had a similar experience where after using lip gloss I noticed my lips would get bumps and then for a few days my lips would feel very dry... literally like sandpaper... and then slowly, the bumps would slowly start to go away. I would say the whole "episode" lasted maybe a week. Eventually I found out that MAC lip glosses were the problem and I did some research, apparently a lot of people are allergic to the vanillin in them. Idk what it could be in your case though since it doesn't seem to really go away ugh.
Hang in there, hope it gets better soon! :/


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## Bunbunny (Jun 28, 2014)

Thanks  /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" /> I've stopped using anything other than vaseline, creams the doctors have given me, and argan oil (which I just recently stopped) and it's getting better, but I don't think it's due to an allergy any more because I'd expect it to go away by now.

Update is that on Friday my bosses kindly let me walk over to the nearby clinic during work hours and I talked to another doctor. She still thought it was cold sores but when I told her I'd been kissing &amp; sharing food with my boyfriend she seemed confused and gave me paperwork for a HSV (herpes simplex virus) blood test -- it'll tell me if the sores I have _right now_ are cold sores, not if I have the virus (which I do). She gave me more medication for cold sores (which I didn't buy, because it's very expensive) as well as an anti-fungal cream on the off chance that it is due to a fungal infection. She gave me that after I told her I woke up with very dry lips -- usually, cold sores don't result in dryness until they scab over.

I've used the cream three times so far and it actually seems like it's working? I can't tell if it's the cream, the fact that I've switched back from argan oil to vaseline (being very careful to not get any on the rest of my face), or simply time. As gross as it is to say I've got a fungal infection on my face, I almost wish it is, just so I can stop dealing with this stupid thing. I miss wearing my lip stains.  /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

Because it's Canada Day on Tuesday and I've got work Sunday &amp; Monday, I won't be able to get the blood work done until Wednesday at the latest, by which point the rash/condition/whatever may be gone. I'll still try and book an appointment w/ my regular doctor if only because I should let him know what's up.

I can't help but wonder that if it is a fungal infection, what caused it? I was using a few products on and near my lips when it began, and if one of them caused it I'd like others to know. But I don't want to slam any company if it was just a freak occurrence. I've heard that thrush is caused by a fungal infection that almost everyone constantly has in their system, and looking at pictures some of them look like my condition, but I don't have any characteristic white spots in my mouth or tongue.

I really hope I can update tomorrow saying "the cream worked, it's gone!"


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## MrsShaw (Jun 28, 2014)

Oh man, yes let's hope it's "just" a fungal infection... at least you know how to treat it and it'll start going away :/ cause if not you are kind of back to square one, which would suck so bad. That would be wild if it was actually caused by a product you used... scary to think about it.
Hope the cream will continue to work and get rid of your problem, do keep us updated please  /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" /> Best wishes!


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## Bunbunny (Jul 1, 2014)

Update #3: I think the anti-fungal cream is working! The bumps are completely gone, and the only symptoms I feel are a slight swelling and general tightness of the lips -- imagine if they were super dry, but when you feel them they're actually  soft (due to the incredible amounts of vaseline I've been using). Even that is coming and going.

It's really gross to think that I had a fungal infection and was kissing my boyfriend and stuff. I have no idea what sort of fungus it could have been, though. I looked up the cream I was using and it appears to be used mainly for thrush -- caused by the Candida fungus which almost everyone has. Think of it like herpes, where it only typically shows up when the immune system is compromised by poor nutrition, stress, etc. It typically attacks the mouth area, usually the inner mouth where there are white spots that indicate a thrush infection. I didn't have these spots which is why I don't know if it was thrush. Looking at some pictures on Google (DON'T GOOGLE IT UNLESS YOU HAVE TO), some mild thrush infections looked somewhat similar. Anyway, it's not infectious because the majority of people have the immune system to fight against it, and were likely "infected" with it prior. It wouldn't have been something I got from make up, rather, I was very stressed around the time it showed up due to exams. That seems most likely.

Whether or not it's thrush, the idea that it was a fungus seems incredibly likely because all of the spots went away within three days of using this cream, opposed to a month and a half of using cold sore creams and pills, avoiding all lip products, etc... that, or a longstanding allergic reaction that didn't go away for a few weeks after stopping the use of lip products. When I begin to slowly introduce lip products into my makeup routine again, we will know for sure. Again, I really hope it was a fungal infection, as gross as it is, because I don't want to throw away all/most of my make up...

GOOD NEWS FOR ONCE. Everything's coming up Bunny!


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## MrsShaw (Jul 5, 2014)

Yes, that sounds like "good" news... I mean, like you said I'd prefer a fungal infection to an actual severe allergic reaction :/
I'm glad the cream did help after all this guessing and trial and error. Hopefully it won't come back and your lips will go back to feeling completely normal here soon!


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